The regional commander of Emergencies and Civil Protection of the Algarve defended on Wednesday the update of the seismic risk study, from 2009, which would allow the development of a new simulator and the installation of warning systems on the coast.
“With the update of this study we intend to have a new simulator [de cenários sísmicos] and install a Complementary network of warning systems along the entire coastline. vulnerable to water overflow in the event of a tsunami,” Vítor Vaz Pinto told reporters.
The person in charge, who was speaking on the sidelines of the presentation of the report on the Special Device to Fight Rural Fires in the Algarve, was referring to the Algarve Seismic and Tsunami Risk Study, originally completed in 2009 and coordinated by the then National Council . Civil Protection Authority.
“We hope that this seismic risk study and tsunami warning will be updated quickly,” he argued, explaining that there is “political will” on the part of the municipal and regional Civil Protection authorities and also the Algarve Regional Development and Coordination Commission.
The regional commander of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC) highlighted that the region “is vulnerable” to the seismic issue: “The question is not if, it is when. And therefore, we have to be better prepared.”
“Assuming that everything that is underground remains unchanged, everything that is on the surface, naturally since 2009, has changed – whether buildings or population – and must be updated,” highlighted Vítor Vaz Pinto.
The 2009 study led to the development of a simulator that is still used today, which anticipates the most affected areas and estimated material and human damage after entering data such as the epicenter and intensity of the earthquake.
In addition to a new simulator, the update of the study would allow us to know in which places on the Algarve coast a network of warning sirens should be installed, which currently only exists in Portimão, after a pilot project carried out in 2018.
“In the event of an earthquake and tsunami, people have to know how to react and cannot wait for someone to come and help them. “Each one of us needs to know what we should do and how we should behave in a situation like this,” added the regional commander, recalling that a new emergency plan for seismic risk is still being prepared.
The Secretary of State for Civil Protection revealed in February that the emergency plans for seismic risk in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon and the Algarve, instruments to support civil protection operations, will be brought together in a single document.
Patrícia Gaspar stated, in a hearing in parliament, that “these two plans will be combined into a single instrument”, based on the updated study of the seismic component in the territory.
For the governor, it is “much more useful and effective” to combine these two plans, which are an instrument to support the civil protection system for operational management in the event of an earthquake.
Source: Observadora
